Method by which terminal reports channel status information to base station in wireless communication system, and apparatus therefor

ABSTRACT

Disclosed in the present application is a method by which a terminal reports channel status information (CSI) to a base station in a wireless access system. The method for reporting the CSI comprises the steps of: receiving, from the base station, the information on a CSI process comprising a plurality of channel status information-reference signal (CSI-RS) resources; determining a CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI) indicating one of the plurality of CSI-RS resources; determining a precoding-related indicator on the basis of the determined CRI; and reporting, to the base station, the CSI comprising the CRI and the precoding-related indicator, wherein the precoding-related indicator has the value of 0 when the number of CSI-RS antenna ports indicated by the CSI is less than or equal to a predetermined value.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is the National Stage filing under 35 U.S.C. 371 of International Application No. PCT/KR2016/010201, filed on Sep. 9, 2016, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/262,391, filed on Dec. 3, 2015 and 62/262,865, filed on Dec. 3, 2015, the contents of which are all hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a wireless communication system, and more particularly, to a method for a user equipment to report channel state information to a base station in a wireless communication system and an apparatus therefor.

BACKGROUND ART

MIMO (multi-input multi-output) technology corresponds to a technology for increasing data transmission and reception efficiency using a plurality of transmission antennas and a plurality of reception antennas instead of using a single transmission antenna and a single reception antenna. If a single antenna is used, a receiving end receives data through a single antenna path. On the contrary, if multiple antennas are used, the receiving end receives data through several paths, thereby enhancing transmission speed and transmission capacity and increasing coverage.

A single-cell MIMO operation can be divided into a single user-MIMO (SU-MIMO) scheme that a single user equipment (UE) receives a downlink signal in a single cell and a multi user-MIMO (MU-MIMO) scheme that two or more UEs receive a downlink signal in a single cell.

Channel estimation corresponds to a procedure of restoring a received signal by compensating a distortion of the signal distorted by fading. In this case, the fading corresponds to a phenomenon of rapidly changing strength of a signal due to multi-path time delay in wireless communication system environment. In order to perform the channel estimation, it is necessary to have a reference signal known to both a transmitter and a receiver. The reference signal can be simply referred to as an RS (reference signal) or a pilot depending on a standard applied thereto.

A downlink reference signal corresponds to a pilot signal for coherently demodulating PDSCH (physical downlink shared channel), PCFICH (physical control format indicator channel), PHICH (physical hybrid indicator channel), PDCCH (physical downlink control channel) and the like. A downlink reference signal can be classified into a common reference signal (CRS) shared by all UEs within a cell and a dedicated reference signal (DRS) used for a specific UE only. Compared to a legacy communication system supporting 4 transmission antennas (e.g., a system according to LTE release 8 or 9 standard), a system including an extended antenna configuration (e.g., a system according to LTE-A standard supporting 8 transmission antennas) is considering DRS-based data demodulation to efficiently manage a reference signal and support an enhanced transmission scheme. In particular, in order to support data transmission through an extended antenna, it may be able to define a DRS for two or more layers. Since a DRS and data are precoded by a same precoder, it is able to easily estimate channel information, which is used for a receiving end to demodulate data, without separate precoding information.

Although a downlink receiving end is able to obtain precoded channel information on an extended antenna configuration through a DRS, it is required for the downlink receiving end to have a separate reference signal except the DRS to obtain channel information which is not precoded. Hence, it is able to define a reference signal for obtaining channel state information (CSI), i.e., a CSI-RS, at a receiving end in a system according to LTE-A standard.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION Technical Task

Based on the aforementioned discussion, a method for a user equipment to report channel state information to a base station in a wireless communication system and an apparatus therefor are proposed in the following.

Technical tasks obtainable from the present invention are non-limited the above-mentioned technical task. And, other unmentioned technical tasks can be clearly understood from the following description by those having ordinary skill in the technical field to which the present invention pertains.

Technical Solution

To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, according to one embodiment, a method of reporting CSI (channel status information), which is reported by a user equipment to a base station in a wireless access system, includes the steps of receiving information on a CSI process configured by a plurality of CSI-RS (channel status information-reference signal) resources from the base station, determining a CRI (CSI-RS resource indicator) indicating one of a plurality of the CSI-RS resources, determining a precoding-related indicator based on the determined CRI, and reporting the CSI including the CRI and the precoding-related indicator to the base station. In this case, if the number of antenna ports of a CSI-RS indicated by the CRI is equal to or less than a prescribed value, the precoding-related indicator may have a value of 0.

To further achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, according to a different embodiment, a method of receiving CSI (channel status information), which is received by a base station from a user equipment in a wireless access system, includes the steps of transmitting information on a CSI process configured by a plurality of CSI-RS (channel status information-reference signal) resources to the user equipment, and receiving the CSI including a CRI (CSI-RS resource indicator) indicating one of a plurality of the CSI-RS resources and a precoding-related indicator based on the determined CRI from the user equipment. In this case, if the number of antenna ports of a CSI-RS indicated by the CRI is equal to or less than a prescribed value, the precoding-related indicator may have a value of 0.

Preferably, the CSI includes an RI (rank indicator) and the RI can be determined based on the determined CRI. More preferably, if the number of antenna ports indicated by the CRI corresponds to 1, the RI is determined by 1 and the precoding-related indicator can be determined by 0. In particular, a reporting period of the CRI can be configured by a multiple of a reporting period of the RI. In this case, the precoding-related indicator can include at least one of a PMI (precoding matrix index) and a PTI (precoding type indicator).

In addition, the method of reporting the CSI and the method of receiving the CSI can further include the step of receiving, from the base station, CSI-RSs to which independent precoding is applied via a plurality of the CSI-RS resources by the user equipment.

Advantageous Effects

According to embodiments of the present invention, a UE can efficiently report channel state information to a base station in a wireless communication system, i.e., a wireless communication system to which 3D MIMO is applied.

Effects obtainable from the present invention may be non-limited by the above mentioned effect. And, other unmentioned effects can be clearly understood from the following description by those having ordinary skill in the technical field to which the present invention pertains.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention.

FIG. 1 is a diagram for a structure of a downlink radio frame;

FIG. 2 is a diagram for an example of a resource grid of a downlink slot;

FIG. 3 is a diagram for structure of a downlink subframe;

FIG. 4 is a diagram for structure of an uplink subframe;

FIG. 5 is a diagram for a configuration of a wireless communication system including a plurality of antennas;

FIG. 6 illustrates a 2D active antenna system having 64 antenna elements;

FIG. 7 illustrates a 3D-MIMO system utilizing 2D-AAS;

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a relation between an antenna element and an antenna port in 2D AAS system to which massive MIMO is applied;

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of PUCCH CSI feedback according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 illustrates an operation example for a PUCCH feedback mode 2-1 of a current LTE system;

FIG. 11 illustrates an example of performing CSI reporting according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a diagram for a configuration of a base station and a user equipment applicable to one embodiment of the present invention.

BEST MODE

Mode for Invention

The embodiments described in the following correspond to combinations of elements and features of the present invention in prescribed forms. And, the respective elements or features may be considered as selective unless they are explicitly mentioned. Each of the elements or features can be implemented in a form failing to be combined with other elements or features. Moreover, it is able to implement an embodiment of the present invention by combining elements and/or features together in part. A sequence of operations explained for each embodiment of the present invention can be modified. Some configurations or features of one embodiment can be included in another embodiment or can be substituted for corresponding configurations or features of another embodiment.

In this specification, embodiments of the present invention are described centering on the data transmission/reception relations between a user equipment and an eNode B. In this case, the eNode B may correspond to a terminal node of a network directly performing communication with the user equipment. In this disclosure, a specific operation explained as performed by an eNode B may be performed by an upper node of the eNode B in some cases.

In particular, in a network constructed with a plurality of network nodes including an eNode B, it is apparent that various operations performed for communication with a user equipment can be performed by an eNode B or other networks except the eNode B. ‘eNode B (eNB)’ may be substituted with such a terminology as a fixed station, a Node B, a base station (BS), an access point (AP) and the like. A terminal may be substituted with such a terminology as a relay node (RN), a relay station (RS), and the like. And, a terminal may be substituted with such a terminology as a user equipment (UE), a mobile station (MS), a mobile subscriber station (MSS), and the like.

Specific terminologies used in the following description are provided to help understand the present invention and the use of the specific terminologies can be modified into a different form in a range of not deviating from the technical idea of the present invention.

Occasionally, to prevent the present invention from getting vaguer, structures and/or devices known to the public are skipped or can be represented as block diagrams centering on the core functions of the structures and/or devices. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.

Embodiments of the present invention may be supported by the standard documents disclosed in at least one of wireless access systems including IEEE 802 system, 3GPP system, 3GPP LTE system, 3GPP LTE-A (LTE-Advanced) system and 3GPP2 system. In particular, the steps or parts, which are not explained to clearly reveal the technical idea of the present invention, in the embodiments of the present invention may be supported by the above documents. Moreover, all terminologies disclosed in this document may be supported by the above standard documents.

The following description of embodiments of the present invention may be usable for various wireless access systems including CDMA (code division multiple access), FDMA (frequency division multiple access), TDMA (time division multiple access), OFDMA (orthogonal frequency division multiple access), SC-FDMA (single carrier frequency division multiple access) and the like. CDMA can be implemented with such a radio technology as UTRA (universal terrestrial radio access), CDMA 2000 and the like. TDMA can be implemented with such a radio technology as GSM/GPRS/EDGE (Global System for Mobile communications)/General Packet Radio Service/Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution). OFDMA can be implemented with such a radio technology as IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, E-UTRA (Evolved UTRA), etc. UTRA is a part of UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System). 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) LTE (long term evolution) is a part of E-UMTS (Evolved UMTS) that uses E-UTRA. The 3GPP LTE adopts OFDMA in downlink (hereinafter abbreviated DL) and SC-FDMA in uplink (hereinafter abbreviated UL). And, LTE-A (LTE-Advanced) is an evolved version of 3GPP LTE. WiMAX may be explained by IEEE 802.16e standard (e.g., WirelessMAN-OFDMA reference system) and advanced IEEE 802.16m standard (e.g., WirelessMAN-OFDMA advanced system). For clarity, the following description mainly concerns 3GPP LTE and LTE-A standards, by which the technical idea of the present invention may be non-limited.

A structure of a downlink radio frame is explained in the following with reference to FIG. 1.

Referring to FIG. 1, in a cellular OFDM radio packet communication system, uplink/downlink data packet transmission is performed in a unit of subframe, wherein one subframe is defined by a given time interval that includes a plurality of OFDM symbols. The 3GPP LTE standard supports a type 1 radio frame structure applicable to frequency division duplex (FDD) and a type 2 radio frame structure applicable to time division duplex (TDD).

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a structure of a type 1 radio frame. The downlink radio frame includes 10 subframes, each of which includes two slots in a time domain. A time required to transmit one subframe will be referred to as a transmission time interval (TTI). For example, one subframe may have a length of 1 ms, and one slot may have a length of 0.5 ms. One slot includes a plurality of OFDM symbols in a time domain and a plurality of resource blocks (RB) in a frequency domain. Since the 3GPP LTE system uses OFDM in a downlink, OFDM symbols represent one symbol period. The OFDM symbol may be referred to as SC-FDMA symbol or symbol period. The resource block (RB) as a resource allocation unit may include a plurality of continuous subcarriers in one slot.

The number of OFDM symbols included in one slot may vary depending on a configuration of a cyclic prefix (CP). Examples of the CP include an extended CP and a normal CP. For example, if the OFDM symbols are configured by the normal CP, the number of OFDM symbols included in one slot may be 7. If the OFDM symbols are configured by the extended CP, since the length of one OFDM symbol is increased, the number of OFDM symbols included in one slot is smaller than that of OFDM symbols in case of the normal CP. For example, in case of the extended CP, the number of OFDM symbols included in one slot may be 6. If a channel state is unstable like the case where the user equipment moves at high speed, the extended CP may be used to reduce inter-symbol interference.

If the normal CP is used, since one slot includes seven OFDM symbols, one subframe includes 14 OFDM symbols. At this time, first two or three OFDM symbols of each subframe may be allocated to a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), and the other OFDM symbols may be allocated to a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).

The aforementioned structure of a radio frame is just an example only. The number of subframes included in a radio frame, the number of slots included in a subframe and the number of symbols included in a slot may be modified in various ways.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for an example of a resource grid of a downlink slot. FIG. 2 shows a case that an OFDM symbol is configured by a normal CP. Referring to FIG. 2, a downlink slot includes a plurality of OFDM symbols in a time domain and a plurality of resource blocks in a frequency domain. In this case, although FIG. 2 illustrates that a downlink slot includes seven OFDM symbols and a resource block includes twelve subcarriers, by which the present invention may be non-limited. Each element on the resource grid will be referred to as a resource element (RE). For example, an RE a (k, 1) may correspond to an RE positioned at a kth subcarrier and an lth OFDM symbol. In case of a normal CP, one resource block includes 12*7 resource elements (in case of an extended CP, one resource block includes 12*6 resource elements). Since a space between subcarriers corresponds to 15 kHz, one resource block includes about 180 kHz in frequency domain. NDL corresponds to the number of resource blocks included in a downlink slot. A value of the NDL can be determined according to a downlink transmission bandwidth scheduled by a base station.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a structure of a downlink subframe. Referring to FIG. 3, maximum three OFDM symbols located at the front of the first slot of a subframe correspond to a control region to which a control channel is allocated. The other OFDM symbols correspond to a data region to which a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) is allocated. A basic unit of transmission becomes one subframe. In particular, PDCCH and PDSCH are assigned over two slots. Examples of downlink control channels used in the 3GPP LTE system include a Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH), a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), and a Physical Hybrid ARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH). The PCFICH is transmitted from the first OFDM symbol of the subframe, and carries information on the number of 01-DM symbols used for transmission of the control channel within the subframe. The PHICH carries HARQ ACK/NACK signals in response to uplink transmission. The control information transmitted through the PDCCH will be referred to as downlink control information (DCI). The DCI includes uplink or downlink scheduling information, uplink transmission (Tx) power control command for a random UE group and the like. The PDCCH may include transport format and resource allocation information of a downlink shared channel (DL-SCH), transport format and resource allocation information of an uplink shared channel (UL-SCH), paging information on a paging channel (PCH), system information on the DL-SCH, resource allocation information of upper layer control message such as random access response transmitted on the PDSCH, a set of transmission (Tx) power control commands of individual user equipments (UEs) within a random user equipment group, transmission (Tx) power control command, and activity indication information of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP). A plurality of PDCCHs may be transmitted within the control region. The user equipment may monitor the plurality of PDCCHs. The PDCCH is transmitted on aggregation of one or a plurality of continuous control channel elements (CCEs). The CCE is a logic allocation unit used to provide the PDCCH with a coding rate based on the status of a radio channel. The CCE corresponds to a plurality of resource element groups (REGs). The format of the PDCCH and the number of available bits of the PDCCH are determined depending on a correlation between the number of CCEs and a coding rate provided by the CCE. The base station determines a PDCCH format depending on the DCI which will be transmitted to the user equipment, and attaches cyclic redundancy check (CRC) to the control information. The CRC is masked with an identifier (for example, radio network temporary identifier (RNTI)) depending on usage of the PDCCH or owner of the PDCCH. For example, if the PDCCH is for a specific user equipment, the CRC may be masked with cell-RNTI (C-RNTI) of the corresponding user equipment. If the PDCCH is for a paging message, the CRC may be masked with a paging identifier (for example, paging-RNTI (P-RNTI)). If the PDCCH is for system information (in more detail, system information block (SIB)), the CRC may be masked with system information RNTI (SI-RNTI). If the PDCCH is for a random access response, the CRC may be masked with a random access RNTI (RA-RNTI).

FIG. 4 is a diagram for structure of an uplink subframe. Referring to FIG. 4, a UL subframe may be divided into a control region and a data region in a frequency domain. A physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) including uplink control information is allocated to the control region and a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) including user data is allocated to the data region. In order to maintain single carrier property, a UE does not transmit the PUCCH and the PUSCH at the same time. The PUCCH for one UE is allocated to a resource block pair in a subframe. The resource blocks belonging to the resource block pair occupy a different subcarrier with respect to two slots. This is represented as the resource block pair allocated to the PUCCH is frequency-hopped at a slot boundary.

MIMO System Modeling

Hereinafter, a MIMO system will be described. MIMO refers to a method using multiple transmit antennas and multiple receive antennas to improve data transmission/reception efficiency. Namely, a plurality of antennas is used at a transmitter or a receiver of a wireless communication system so that capacity can be increased and performance can be improved. MIMO may also be referred to as multi-antenna in this disclosure.

MIMO technology does not depend on a single antenna path in order to receive a whole message. Instead, MIMO technology completes data by combining data fragments received via multiple antennas. The use of MIMO technology can increase data transmission rate within a cell area of a specific size or extend system coverage at a specific data transmission rate. MIMO technology can be widely used in mobile communication terminals and relay nodes. MIMO technology can overcome a limited transmission capacity encountered with the conventional single-antenna technology in mobile communication.

FIG. 5 illustrates the configuration of a typical MIMO communication system. A transmitter has N_(T) transmit (Tx) antennas and a receiver has N_(R) receive (Rx) antennas. Use of a plurality of antennas at both the transmitter and the receiver increases a theoretical channel transmission capacity, compared to the use of a plurality of antennas at only one of the transmitter and the receiver. Channel transmission capacity increases in proportion to the number of antennas. Therefore, transmission rate and frequency efficiency are increased. Given a maximum transmission rate R_(o) that may be achieved with a single antenna, the transmission rate may be increased, in theory, to the product of R_(o) and a transmission rate increase rate R_(i) in the case of multiple antennas, as indicated by Equation 1. R_(i) is the smaller of N_(T) and N_(R). R _(i)=min(N _(T) ,N _(R))  [Equation 1]

For example, a MIMO communication system with four Tx antennas and four Rx antennas may theoretically achieve a transmission rate four times that of a single antenna system. Since the theoretical capacity increase of the MIMO wireless communication system was verified in the mid-1990s, many techniques have been actively developed to increase data transmission rate in real implementations. Some of these techniques have already been reflected in various wireless communication standards including standards for 3rd generation (3G) mobile communications, next-generation wireless local area networks, etc.

Active research up to now related to MIMO technology has focused upon a number of different aspects, including research into information theory related to MIMO communication capacity calculation in various channel environments and in multiple access environments, research into wireless channel measurement and model derivation of MIMO systems, and research into space-time signal processing technologies for improving transmission reliability and transmission rate.

Communication in a MIMO system will be described in detail through mathematical modeling. It is assumed that N_(T) Tx antennas and N_(R) Rx antennas are present as illustrated in FIG. 5. Regarding a transmission signal, up to N_(T) pieces of information can be transmitted through the N_(T) Tx antennas, as expressed as the following vector. s=[s ₁ ,s ₂ ,Λ,s _(N) _(T) ]^(T)  [Equation 2]

Individual pieces of the transmission information s₁, s₂, . . . , s_(N) _(T) may have different transmit powers. If the individual transmit powers are denoted by P₁, P₂, . . . , P_(N) _(T) , respectively, then the transmission power-controlled transmission information may be given as ŝ=[ŝ ₁ ,ŝ ₂ ,Λ,ŝ _(N) _(T) ]^(T)=[P ₁ s ₁ ,P ₂ s ₂ ,Λ,P _(N) _(T) s _(N) _(T) ]^(T)  [Equation 3]

The transmission power-controlled transmission information vector ŝ may be expressed below, using a diagonal matrix P of transmission power.

$\begin{matrix} {\hat{s} = {{\begin{bmatrix} P_{1} & \; & \; & 0 \\ \; & P_{2} & \; & \; \\ \; & \; & O & \; \\ 0 & \; & \; & P_{N_{T}} \end{bmatrix}\begin{bmatrix} s_{1} \\ s_{2} \\ M \\ s_{N_{T}} \end{bmatrix}} = {Ps}}} & \left\lbrack {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 4} \right\rbrack \end{matrix}$

Meanwhile, N_(T) transmission signals x₁, x₂, . . . , x_(N) _(T) to be actually transmitted may be configured by multiplying the transmission power-controlled information vector ŝ by a weight matrix W. The weight matrix W functions to appropriately distribute the transmission information to individual antennas according to transmission channel states, etc. The transmission signals x₁, x₂, . . . , x_(N) _(T) are represented as a vector X, which may be determined by Equation 5. Here, w_(ij) denotes a weight of an i-th Tx antenna and a j-th piece of information. W is referred to as a weight matrix or a precoding matrix.

$\begin{matrix} {x = {\quad{\begin{bmatrix} x_{1} \\ x_{2} \\ M \\ x_{i} \\ M \\ x_{N_{T}} \end{bmatrix} = {{\begin{bmatrix} w_{11} & w_{12} & \Lambda & w_{1N_{T}} \\ w_{21} & w_{22} & \Lambda & w_{2N_{T}} \\ M & \; & O & \; \\ w_{i\; 1} & w_{i\; 2} & \Lambda & w_{{iN}_{T}} \\ M & \; & O & \; \\ w_{N_{T}1} & w_{N_{T}2} & \Lambda & w_{N_{T}N_{T}} \end{bmatrix}\begin{bmatrix} {\hat{s}}_{1} \\ {\hat{s}}_{2} \\ M \\ {\hat{s}}_{j} \\ M \\ {\hat{s}}_{N_{T}} \end{bmatrix}} = {{W\hat{s}} = {WPs}}}}}} & \left\lbrack {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 5} \right\rbrack \end{matrix}$

Generally, the physical meaning of the rank of a channel matrix is the maximum number of different pieces of information that can be transmitted on a given channel. Therefore, the rank of a channel matrix is defined as the smaller of the number of independent rows and the number of independent columns in the channel matrix. Accordingly, the rank of the channel matrix is not larger than the number of rows or columns of the channel matrix. The rank of the channel matrix H (rank(H)) is restricted as follows. rank(H)≤min(N _(T) ,N _(R))  [Equation 6]

A different piece of information transmitted in MIMO is referred to as a transmission stream or stream. A stream may also be called a layer. It is thus concluded that the number of transmission streams is not larger than the rank of channels, i.e. the maximum number of different pieces of transmittable information. Thus, the channel matrix H is determined by # of streams≤rank(H)≤min(N _(T) ,N _(R))  [Equation 7]

“# of streams” denotes the number of streams. It should be noted that one stream may be transmitted through one or more antennas.

One or more streams may be mapped to a plurality of antennas in many ways. This method may be described as follows depending on MIMO schemes. If one stream is transmitted through a plurality of antennas, this may be regarded as spatial diversity. When a plurality of streams is transmitted through a plurality of antennas, this may be spatial multiplexing. A hybrid scheme of spatial diversity and spatial multiplexing may be contemplated.

CSI Feedback

Hereinbelow, a description of channel state information (CSI) reporting will be given. In the current LTE standard, a MIMO transmission scheme is categorized into open-loop MIMO operated without CSI and closed-loop MIMO operated based on CSI. Especially, according to the closed-loop MIMO system, each of the eNB and the UE may be able to perform beamforming based on CSI in order to obtain multiplexing gain of MIMO antennas. To acquire CSI from the UE, the eNB transmits RSs to the UE and commands the UE to feed back CSI measured based on the RSs through a PUCCH or a PUSCH.

CSI is divided into three types of information: an RI, a PMI, and a CQI. First, RI is information on a channel rank as described above and indicates the number of streams that can be received via the same time-frequency resource. Since RI is determined by long-term fading of a channel, it may be generally fed back at a cycle longer than that of PMI or CQI.

Second, PMI is a value reflecting a spatial characteristic of a channel and indicates a precoding matrix index of the eNB preferred by the UE based on a metric of signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR). Lastly, CQI is information indicating the strength of a channel and indicates a reception SINR obtainable when the eNB uses PMI.

An advanced system such as an LTE-A system considers additional multi-user diversity through multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO). Due to interference between UEs multiplexed in an antenna domain in MU-MIMO, the accuracy of CSI may significantly affect interference with other multiplexed UEs as well as a UE that reports the CSI. Accordingly, more accurate CSI than in single-user MIMO (SU-MIMO) should be reported in MU-MIMO.

In this context, the LTE-A standard has determined to separately design a final PMI as a long-term and/or wideband PMI, W1, and a short-term and/or subband PMI, W2.

For example, a long-term covariance matrix of channels expressed as Equation 8 may be used for hierarchical codebook transformation that configures one final PMI with W1 and W2. W=norm(W1W2)  [Equation 8]

In Equation 8, W2 is a short-term PMI, which is a codeword of a codebook reflecting short-term channel information, W is a codeword of a final codebook, and norm(A) is a matrix obtained by normalizing each column of matrix A to 1.

Conventionally, the codewords W1 and W2 are given as Equation 9.

$\begin{matrix} {{{{{{W\; 1(i)} = \begin{bmatrix} X_{i} & 0 \\ 0 & X_{i} \end{bmatrix}},{{where}\mspace{14mu} X_{i}\mspace{14mu}{is}\mspace{14mu}{{Nt}/2}\mspace{14mu}{by}\mspace{14mu} M\mspace{14mu}{matrix}}}W\; 2(j)} = \overset{\overset{r\mspace{14mu}{columns}}{︷}}{\left\lbrack {\begin{matrix} e_{M}^{k} & e_{M}^{l} \\ {\alpha_{j}e_{M}^{k}} & {\beta_{j}e_{M}^{l}} \end{matrix}\mspace{14mu}\ldots\mspace{14mu}\begin{matrix} e_{M}^{m} \\ {\gamma_{j}e_{M}^{m}} \end{matrix}} \right\rbrack}}{\left( {{{if}\mspace{14mu}{rank}} = r} \right),{{{where}\mspace{14mu} 1} \leq k},l,{m \leq {M\mspace{14mu}{and}}}}{k,l,{m\mspace{14mu}{are}\mspace{14mu}{integed}}}} & \left\lbrack {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 9} \right\rbrack \end{matrix}$

where Nt is the number of Tx antennas, M is the number of columns of a matrix Xi, indicating that the matrix Xi includes a total of M candidate column vectors. eMk, eM1, and eMm denote k-th, l-th, and m-th column vectors of the matrix Xi in which only k-th, l-th, and m-th elements among M elements are 0 and the other elements are 0, respectively. α_(j), β_(j), and γ_(j) are complex values each having a unit norm and indicate that, when the k-th, l-th, and m-th column vectors of the matrix Xi are selected, phase rotation is applied to the column vectors. At this time, i is an integer greater than 0, denoting a PMI index indicating W1 and j is an integer greater than 0, denoting a PMI index indicating W2.

In Equation 9, the codewords are designed so as to reflect correlation characteristics between established channels, if cross-polarized antennas are densely arranged, for example, the distance between adjacent antennas is equal to or less than half a signal wavelength. The cross-polarized antennas may be divided into a horizontal antenna group and a vertical antenna group and the two antenna groups are co-located, each having the property of a uniform linear array (ULA) antenna.

Therefore, the correlations between antennas in each group have the same linear phase increment property and the correlation between the antenna groups is characterized by phase rotation. Since a codebook is quantized values of channels, it is necessary to design a codebook reflecting channel characteristics. For convenience of description, a rank-1 codeword designed in the above manner may be given as Equation 10.

$\begin{matrix} {{W\; 1(i)*W\; 2(j)} = \begin{bmatrix} {X_{i}(k)} \\ {\alpha_{j}{X_{i}(k)}} \end{bmatrix}} & \left\lbrack {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 10} \right\rbrack \end{matrix}$

In Equation 10, a codeword is expressed as an N_(T)×1 vector where NT is the number of Tx antennas and the codeword is composed of an upper vector X_(i)(k) and a lower vector α_(j)x_(i)(k), representing the correlation characteristics of the horizontal and vertical antenna groups, respectively. x_(i)(k) is expressed as a vector having the linear phase increment property, reflecting the correlation characteristics between antennas in each antenna group. For example, a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) matrix may be used for X_(i)(k).

As mentioned in the foregoing description, channel state information (CSI) includes CQI, PMI, RI, and the like in LTE system. All or a part of the CQI, the PMI, and the RI is transmitted depending on a transmission mode of a UE. When the CSI is periodically transmitted, it is referred to as periodic reporting. When the CSI is transmitted upon the request of a base station, it is referred to as aperiodic reporting. In case of the aperiodic reporting, a request bit, which is included in uplink scheduling information transmitted by a base station, is transmitted to a UE. The UE forwards CSI to the base station via a data channel (PUSCH) in consideration of a transmission mode of the UE. In case of the periodic reporting, a period and an offset in the period are signaled in a unit of a subframe according to a UE using a semi-static scheme via higher layer signaling. A UE forwards CSI to a base station via an uplink control channel (PUCCH) according to a determined period in consideration of a transmission mode. If uplink data exists at the same time in a subframe in which CSI is transmitted, the CSI is transmitted via an uplink data channel (PUSCH) together with the data. The base station transmits transmission timing information appropriate for a UE to the UE in consideration of a channel status of each UE, a UE distribution status in a cell, and the like. The transmission timing information includes a period for transmitting CSI, offset, and the like and can be transmitted to each UE via an RRC message.

LTE system includes 4 types of CQI reporting mode. Specifically, the CQI reporting mode is divided into WB CQI and SB CQI according to a CQI feedback type and is divided into no PMI and single PMI depending on whether PMI is transmitted or not. In order to periodically report CQI, each UE receives information consisting of a combination of a period and an offset via RRC signaling.

CSI reporting types defined in LTE release-10 are described in the following.

A type 1 report supports CQI feedback for a UE on a selected subband. A type 1a report supports subband CQI and second PMI feedback. A type 2, a type 2b, and a type 2c reports support wideband CQI and PMI feedback. A type 2a report supports wideband PMI feedback. A type 3 report supports RI feedback. A type 4 report supports wideband CQI. A type 5 report supports RI and wideband PMI feedback. A type 6 report supports RI and PTI (precoding type indicator) feedback.

Massive MIMO

A recent wireless communication system considers introducing an active antenna system (hereinafter, AAS). Unlike a legacy passive antenna system that an amplifier capable of adjusting a phase and a size of a signal is separated from an antenna, the AAS corresponds to a system that each antenna is configured as an active antenna including such an active circuit as an amplifier. Since the AAS uses an active antenna, it is not necessary for the AAS to have a separate cable for connecting an amplifier with an antenna, a connector, other hardware, and the like. Hence, the AAS has characteristics that efficiency is high in terms of energy and management cost. In particular, since the AAS supports an electronic beam control scheme according to each antenna, the AAS enables an evolved MIMO technique such as forming a delicate beam pattern in consideration of a beam direction and a beam width, forming a 3D beam pattern, and the like.

As the evolved antenna system such as the AAS and the like is introduced, a massive MIMO structure including a plurality of input/output antennas and multi-dimensional antenna structure are also considered. As an example, in case of forming a 2D antenna array instead of a legacy straight antenna array, it may be able to form a 3D beam pattern by the active antenna of the AAS.

FIG. 6 illustrates a 2D active antenna system having 64 antenna elements.

Referring to FIG. 6, it is able to see that N_(t)=N_(v)·N_(h) number of antennas forms a shape of square. In particular, N_(h) and N_(v) indicate the number of antenna columns in horizontal direction and the number of antenna rows in vertical direction, respectively.

If the 3D beam pattern is utilized in the aspect of a transmission antenna, it may be able to perform semi-static or dynamic beam forming not only in horizontal direction but also in vertical direction of a beam. As an example, it may consider such an application as sector forming in vertical direction and the like. In the aspect of a reception antenna, when a reception beam is formed using massive antennas, it may be able to expect a signal power increasing effect according to an antenna array gain. Hence, in case of uplink, an eNB is able to receive a signal transmitted from a UE through a plurality of antennas. In this case, in order to reduce interference impact, the UE can configure transmit power of the UE to be very low in consideration of a gain of massive reception antennas.

FIG. 7 illustrates a 3D-MIMO system utilizing 2D-AAS. In particular, FIG. 7 shows a system that an eNB or a UE has a plurality of transmission/reception antennas capable of forming an AAS-based 3D beam.

Meanwhile, an antenna port corresponds to a concept of a logical antenna and does not mean an actual antenna element. Hence, the antenna port and the antenna element itself can be referred to as a virtual antenna and a physical antenna, respectively. A scheme of mapping an antenna port to a physical antenna element is an important element in designing the overall MIMO system. One-to-one mapping for mapping an antenna port to an antenna element and one-to-many mapping for mapping an antenna port to a plurality of antenna elements can be considered as the antenna mapping scheme.

Mapping an antenna port to an antenna element is represented as a virtualization matrix B in equation 11. In this case, x corresponds to a signal transmitted from the antenna port and z corresponds to a signal transmitted from the antenna element. The number of antenna ports can be smaller than the number of antenna elements. Yet, for clarity, assume that the number of antenna ports also corresponds to N_(t), b_(n) corresponds to a virtualization vector indicating a relation that an n^(th) antenna port is mapped to antenna elements. If the number of non-zero element of the virtualization vector b_(n) corresponds to 1, it indicates the one-to-one mapping scheme. If the number of non-zero element of the virtualization vector b_(n) corresponds to a plural number, it indicates the one-to-many mapping scheme. z=Bx=└b ₀ b ₁ Λb _(N) _(t) ₋₁ ┘x.  [Equation 11]

In equation 11, in order to consider that signal energy of an antenna port and signal energy of an antenna element are the same, assume that a virtualization vector is normalized to ∥b_(n)∥=1. In the following, a relation between an antenna element and an antenna port is explained in more detail with reference to the drawing.

FIG. 8 illustrates a relation between an antenna element and an antenna port in a 2D AAS system to which massive MIMO is applied. In particular, the left drawing of FIG. 8 shows 32 antenna elements in total, i.e., 32 physical antennas, and the right drawing of FIG. 8 shows 32 antenna ports in total, i.e., 32 logical antennas.

In particular, FIG. 8 shows a grouping scheme of antenna elements and a grouping scheme of antenna ports. FIG. 8 also shows mapping between an antenna element and an antenna port. Referring to FIG. 8, it is able to see that antenna elements are grouped as antenna columns in vertical direction. Specifically, the antenna elements are divided into 4 groups including E(0), E(1), E(2), and E(3). And, the 32 antenna ports are also divided into 4 groups to form groups including F(0), F(1), F(2), and F(3).

In this case, antenna ports belonging to a group F(i) are virtualized using all antenna elements belonging to a group E(i). A virtualization vector of each antenna port belonging to the group F(i) is differently configured. One antenna port is selected from each antenna port group to form a group T(i). Each antenna port belonging to the group T(i) uses an identical virtualization vector to be mapped to a different antenna element group. An RS for each antenna port belonging to the group T(i) is transmitted to an identical OFDM symbol.

In a FD MIMO system, an eNB can set a plurality of CSI-RS resources to a UE in a single CSI process. In this case, the CSI process corresponds to an operation of making a feedback with an independent feedback configuration. For example, 8 CSI-RS resources can be configured within a single CSI process. In this case, 8 CSI-RSs correspond to a group T(0) to a group T(7) in FIG. 8.

Since different virtualization is applied, different beamforming is applied to each of 8 4-port CSI-RSs. For example, in case of a CSI-RS corresponding to the T(0), vertical direction beamforming is applied to the CSI-RS using a zenith angle of 100 degrees and the CS-RS is configured with a zenith angle difference of 5 degrees. Hence, vertical direction beamforming is applied to a CSI-RS corresponding to the T(7) with a zenith angle of 135 degrees.

The UE selects a CSI-RS of a strong channel from among 8 CSI-RSs, calculates CSI on the basis of the selected CSI-RS, and report the CSI to the eNB. In this case, the UE additionally reports the selected CSI-RS to the eNB through a beam index (BI) value. For example, if a channel of a first CSI-RS corresponding to T(0) is strongest, the UE sets the BI to 0 to report the channel to the eNB. In this case, since the beam index corresponds to information on the selected CSI-RS, the beam index can also be referred to as a CRI (CSI-RS resource indicator).

In the following, for clarity, assume that a BI indicates selection of a CSI-RS. More specifically, the BI may indicate a combination between a specific CSI-RS and a specific antenna port. For example, the BI selects a CSI-RS from among 8 CSI-RSs included in a CSI process and additionally selects a combination between an antenna port 15 and an antenna port 16 from the selected CSI-RS. If it is able to select one from among a combination between an antenna port 15 and an antenna port 16 and a combination between an antenna port 17 and an antenna port 18 in each CSI-RS, the BI is able to indicate one of 16 values. In particular, a BI for a combination between an antenna port 15 and an antenna port 16 of a first CSI-RS is mapped in an order of 0, a BI for a combination between an antenna port 17 and an antenna port 18 of the first CSI-RS is mapped in an order of 1, a BI for a combination between an antenna port 15 and an antenna port 16 of a second CSI-RS is mapped in an order of 2, and a BI for a combination between an antenna port 17 and an antenna port 18 of the second CSI-RS is mapped in an order of 3. In particular, a BI for a combination between an antenna port 17 and an antenna port 18 of an eighth CSI-RS is lastly mapped in an order of 15. In particular, when a BI indicates a combination between antenna ports, the proposed scheme of the present invention can be applied as it is.

When a CSI period is transmitted on PUCCH, if a BI is collided with other CSI values in the same subframe, it is necessary to define a dropping rule based on a priority. According to a current LTE standard document, reporting types shown in Table 1 are defined for PUCCH CSI feedback.

TABLE 1 Type 1 report supports CQI feedback for the UE selected sub-bands Type 1a report supports subband CQI and second PMI feedback Type 2, Type 2b, and Type 2c report supports wideband CQI and PMI feedback Type 2a report supports wideband PMI feedback Type 3 report supports RI feedback Type 4 report supports wideband CQI Type 5 report supports RI and wideband PMI feedback Type 6 report supports RI and PTI feedback

In some cases, it may configure a plurality of reporting types to be fed back in the same subframe. In this case, it is represented as a collision occurs. In this case, a UE feedbacks a single reporting type only and drops the remaining reporting types.

When a UE feedbacks a BI, new reporting types shown in Table 2 can be defined.

TABLE 2 Type 7 report supports BI feedback Type 8 report supports BI and RI feedback Type 9 report supports BI and RI and PTI feedback Type 10 report supports BI and RI and wideband PMI feedback Type 11 report supports BI and wideband PMI feedback

In the new reporting types shown in Table 2, a BI may correspond to a long-term BI or a short-term BI. When the new reporting types are defined, since a BI corresponds to an important value influencing on calculating PMI, RI, and CQI, it is preferable to transmit the BI with a higher priority. Hence, all reporting types for transmitting the BI have a priority identical to a priority of the legacy reporting types 3, 5, and 6.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of PUCCH CSI feedback according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 9, it is able to see that a reporting period of an RI corresponds to 60 ms, an offset is configured by 0. And, a reporting period and an offset of PMI/CQI correspond to 5 ms.

And, a BI has an offset identical to an offset of PMI/CQI and a period of the BI is defined by N multiple of a period of the PMI/CQI. (In this case, a base station informs a UE of a value of the N via higher layer signaling such as RRC signaling.) As a result, a collision occurs between the BI and the PMI/CQI. In this case, as mentioned in the foregoing description, since the BI has a higher priority, the BI is reported and the PMI/CQI is dropped.

In addition, as shown in FIG. 9, when an RI is reported, a long-term BI can be transmitted together. And, when a BI is transmitted, a wideband PMI (i.e., PMI corresponding to W1 in a dual codebook structure consisting of W1 and W2) can be transmitted together.

In a PUCCH feedback mode 2-1 of current LTE system, an RI is reported together with a PTI of a size of 1 bit. FIG. 10 illustrates an operation example for a PUCCH feedback mode 2-1 of a current LTE system.

Referring to FIG. 10, an RI and a PTI are reported in a unit of 16 subframes, W1 is reported in a unit of 8 subframes between a reporting period of the RI and a reporting period of the PTI, and WB W2 and CQI are reported in a unit of 2 subframes between reporting periods of the W1.

In this case, if a BI is additionally reported together with the RI, a payload size of CSI, which is reported together with the RI, increases due to the PTI and the BI. Consequently, if the payload size of the CSI increases, reception reliability of the RI is degraded. In particular, when a BI report is configured via higher layer signaling such as RRC signaling in a feedback mode 2-1, the present invention proposes a method of reporting a BI and an RI together without reporting PTI. In this case, since the PTI is not reported, a UE and a base station always assume a value of the PTI as 0 (or, 1) and calculate/report PMI and CQI on the basis of the PTI value. Or, the BI and the RI can be reported together only when a payload size of the BI is big while the PTI is not reported. For example, if the BI has a size of 1 bit, the PTI, the BI, and the RI are reported together. Yet, if the size of the BI is equal to or greater than 2 bits, a UE reports the BI and the RI only.

As shown in FIG. 10, in a PUCCH feedback mode that the RI and the PTI are reported together, CRI (=BI) is configured by a multiple of an RI period and can be configured to have an offset identical to an offset of the RI period. In this case, when a UE reports the CRI, the UE can report the CRI, the RI, and the PTI together. For example, if a period of the CRI is identical to a period of the RI, the CRI and the RI are reported together in a subframe #0 and a subframe #16. If CSI reporting of a different CSI process and CSI reporting of a different CC (carrier component) are collided with CRI, RI, and PTI reporting in a subframe #0 and the latter one (i.e., CRI, RI and PTI reporting in the subframe #0) is dropped without being reported, RI, CRI and PTI, which are to be assumed for calculating W1, W2, and CQI, become ambiguous until a next RI, CRI, and PTI are reported (i.e., in subframes #1 to #16).

In order to solve the ambiguity, it may calculate PMI and CQI under the assumption that a CRI has selected a CSI-RS of a lowest index in a corresponding CSI process and an RI corresponds to a lowest RI capable of being selected from the selected CSI-RS. In this case, if the RI capable of being selected from the selected CSI-RS is equal to less than 2 or if the RI capable of being selected from the selected CSI-RS is 4 and Rel-12 4Tx codebook is not activated via RRC signaling, the PMI and the CQI are reported using the legacy feedback mode 2-1 in which PTI reporting does not exist. For any other cases, the PMI and the CQI are reported under the assumption that PTI corresponds to 0.

It may be able to solve ambiguity using a scheme similar to the abovementioned scheme not only in the PUCCH feedback mode 2-1 shown in FIG. 10 but also in all PUCCH feedback modes. When PMI/CQI is calculated, if a most recently reported RI and a CRI do not exist, it may calculate the PMI and the CQI under the assumption that a CRI has selected a CSI-RS of a lowest index in a corresponding CSI process and an RI corresponds to a lowest RI capable of being selected from the selected CSI-RS. As shown in FIG. 10, when a CRI is not reported, if a most recently reported PTI does not exist, a UE can calculate and report PMI/CQI under the assumption that PTI corresponds to 0.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example of performing CSI reporting according to an embodiment of the present invention. In particular, FIG. 11 illustrates a case that a CSI reporting type is configured by Class B and K>1. In this case, the K corresponds to the number of CSI-RS resources constructing a single CSI process and the Class B indicates that an eNB performs beamforming on each of the CSI-RS resources that construct the single CSI process.

Referring to FIG. 11, an RI period and an offset correspond to 20 ms and 5 ms, respectively. A CQI period and an offset correspond to 5 ms and 0 ms, respectively. A period of a BI can be configured by a multiple of the period of the RI. The period of the BI is configured by 40 ms corresponding to a double of the period of the RI and the offset of the BI is identical to the offset of the RI. Nk corresponds to the number of antenna ports of a CSI-RS resource designated by the BI. In a reporting type M, M may become 8, 9 or 10. In particular, the reporting type M may correspond to reporting types 8, 9, and 10 in Table 2. The reporting types 8, 9 and 10 correspond to reporting types including an RI. For example, if the M corresponds to 8, it indicates the reporting type 8 that an RI and a BI are reported together.

In this case, when RI, PMI, and CQI are reported, if a CRI is reported together, the RI, the PMI, and the CQI are calculated on the basis of a value of the CRI. If the CRI is not reported together, the RI, the PMI, and the CQI are calculated on the basis of a most recently reported CRI value.

If Nk selected as a BI in a subframe #5 is not 1, an RI value may correspond to a value equal to or greater than 1. Hence, the RI value corresponds to a meaningful value and the RI and the BI are reported together.

Since BI reporting timing has not arrived yet in a subframe #25, a reporting type M without BI is reported. If the M corresponds to 8, since the remaining CSI without BI, i.e., RI, is reported only, it becomes a reporting type 3. Similarly, if the M corresponds to 9 or 10, since the remaining CSI without BI is reported only, a reporting type 9 is actually regarded as a reporting type 6 and a reporting type 10 is reported by a reporting type 5. In particular, the reporting type M without BI corresponds to a reporting type different from a reporting type M.

A BI is selected and reported in a subframe #45. In this case, Nk selected as a BI corresponds to 1. In this case, since the number of ports of a CSI-RS corresponds to 1, an RI and a PMI are meaningless. Hence, a UE does not transmit the RI and the PMI until a next BI is reported. In particular, the UE reports CQI only in subframes #55 to #80.

If a feedback period of an RI is set in a subframe #65, it is necessary to report the reporting type M without BI. Yet, due to Nk=1, RI/PMI is not transmitted. Since the subframe #65 is configured by a period of CQI, CQI is reported instead of the reporting type M without BI. In FIG. 11, when SB CQI feedback is performed, reporting CQI only includes L corresponding to an SB selection indicator together with CB CQI. As a result, a PMI/CQI reporting type prior to a subframe #45 and a reporting type for reporting CQI only after the configuration of Nk=1 (i.e., subframes #55 to #80) can be changed. It may operate in a PUCCH feedback mode x-1 including PMI and RI feedback prior to the timing of the subframe #45 and operate in a PUCCH feedback mode x-0 including PMI and RI feedback from the timing of the subframe #45.

As a result, it may operate in a PUCCH feedback mode x-1 including PMI and RI feedback prior to the timing of the subframe #45 and operate in a PUCCH feedback mode x-0 including PMI and RI feedback from the timing of the subframe #45. Since Nk corresponds to 1 in the subframe #45, PMI, RI, and PTI are meaningless. As a result, a reporting type 7 consisting of a BI only is reported instead of the reporting type M.

Subsequently, if a BI of which Nk is not 1 is selected in a subframe #85, reporting is performed using the reporting type M in the subframe #85. PMI/CQI is reported during a period between the subframe #85 and the timing at which a next BI is reported. Consequently, when a BI is transmitted, if Nk=1 is selected, the reporting type M reporting BI and RI together is not reported. Instead, a reporting type 7 reporting the BI only is reported. And, feedback is performed via the PUCCH feedback mode x-0 instead of the PUCCH feedback mode x-1 until a next BI is reported after Nk=1 is selected.

Meanwhile, if a reporting type and a reporting mode change in a following subframe according to an Nk value selected by a recently reported BI, a feedback scheme can be complicated. Hence, it may be able to configure the reporting type and the reporting mode to be more simply maintained. For example, while a reporting type reporting both PMI and CQI is maintained after Nk is set to 1 (i.e., subframes #55 to #80), it may transmit dummy data to a payload of the PMI and a base station can ignore the PMI payload. The dummy data may correspond to 0. In particular, if an unnecessary CSI value occurs in accordance with a change of Nk value, a UE transmits the CSI using a dummy data (e.g., 0) and maintains a reporting type and a reporting mode. Or, the UE may change a reporting type only according to Nk value selected by a recently reported BI while maintaining a reporting mode.

As mentioned earlier in FIG. 11, a reporting type and a reporting mode may change and a feedback scheme can be complicated depending on whether or not Nk value corresponds to 1. In order to simplify this, if a CSI reporting type corresponds to Class B, K>1 is satisfied, and there exists at least one CSI-RS of which Nk value corresponds to 1, a base station may not set RI/PMI report to a corresponding CSI process all the time. In this case, since a UE does not report RI/PMI irrespective of the Nk value, the UE can maintain the same reporting type irrespective of the Nk value. In particular, if a CSI reporting type corresponds to Class B, K>1 is satisfied, and there exists at least one CSI-RS of which the Nk value corresponds to 1, the UE may expect that RI/PMI report of a corresponding CSI process is not to be configured.

FIG. 12 is a diagram for a base station and a user equipment capable of being applied to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 12, a wireless communication system includes a base station (BS) 1210 and a user equipment (UE) 1220. The BS 1210 includes a processor 1213, a memory 1214 and a radio frequency (RF) units 1211/1212. The processor 1213 can be configured to implement the proposed functions, processes and/or methods. The memory 1214 is connected with the processor 1213 and then stores various kinds of information associated with an operation of the processor 1213. The RF units 1211/1212 are connected with the processor 1213 and transmits and/or receives a radio signal.

The user equipment 1220 includes a processor 1223, a memory 1224 and a radio frequency (RF) unit 1221/1222. The processor 1223 can be configured to implement the proposed functions, processes and/or methods. The memory 1224 is connected with the processor 1223 and then stores various kinds of information associated with an operation of the processor 1223. The RF unit 1221/1222 is connected with the processor 1223 and transmits and/or receives a radio signal. The base station 1210 and/or the user equipment 1220 may have a single antenna or multiple antennas.

The above-described embodiments correspond to combinations of elements and features of the present invention in prescribed forms. And, the respective elements or features may be considered as selective unless they are explicitly mentioned. Each of the elements or features can be implemented in a form failing to be combined with other elements or features. Moreover, it is able to implement an embodiment of the present invention by combining elements and/or features together in part. A sequence of operations explained for each embodiment of the present invention can be modified. Some configurations or features of one embodiment can be included in another embodiment or can be substituted for corresponding configurations or features of another embodiment. And, it is apparently understandable that an embodiment is configured by combining claims failing to have relation of explicit citation in the appended claims together or can be included as new claims by amendment after filing an application.

In this disclosure, a specific operation explained as performed by an eNode B may be performed by an upper node of the eNode B in some cases. In particular, in a network constructed with a plurality of network nodes including an eNode B, it is apparent that various operations performed for communication with a user equipment can be performed by an eNode B or other networks except the eNode B. ‘eNode B (eNB)’ may be substituted with such a terminology as a fixed station, a Node B, a base station (BS), an access point (AP) and the like.

Embodiments of the present invention can be implemented using various means. For instance, embodiments of the present invention can be implemented using hardware, firmware, software and/or any combinations thereof. In the implementation by hardware, a method according to each embodiment of the present invention can be implemented by at least one selected from the group consisting of ASICs (application specific integrated circuits), DSPs (digital signal processors), DSPDs (digital signal processing devices), PLDs (programmable logic devices), FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays), processor, controller, microcontroller, microprocessor and the like.

In case of the implementation by firmware or software, a method according to each embodiment of the present invention can be implemented by modules, procedures, and/or functions for performing the above-explained functions or operations. Software code is stored in a memory unit and is then drivable by a processor.

The memory unit is provided within or outside the processor to exchange data with the processor through the various means known in public.

Detailed explanation on the preferred embodiment of the present invention disclosed as mentioned in the foregoing description is provided for those in the art to implement and execute the present invention. While the present invention has been described and illustrated herein with reference to the preferred embodiments thereof, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For instance, those skilled in the art can use each component described in the aforementioned embodiments in a manner of combining it with each other. Hence, the present invention may be non-limited to the aforementioned embodiments of the present invention and intends to provide a scope matched with principles and new characteristics disclosed in the present invention.

While the present invention has been described and illustrated herein with reference to the preferred embodiments thereof, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, it is intended that the present invention covers the modifications and variations of this invention that come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents. And, it is apparently understandable that an embodiment is configured by combining claims failing to have relation of explicit citation in the appended claims together or can be included as new claims by amendment after filing an application.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The present invention can be used for a wireless communication device such as a terminal, a relay, a base station and the like. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of reporting CSI (channel status information), which is reported by a user equipment to a base station in a wireless access system, comprising the steps of: receiving information on a CSI process configured by a plurality of CSI-RS (channel status information-reference signal) resources from the base station; determining a CRI (CSI-RS resource indicator), the CRI indicating: one of the plurality of the CSI-RS resources, and a number of antenna ports of the CSI-RS; determining a precoding-related indicator based on the determined CRI; and reporting the CSI to the base station, the CSI containing the CRI and the precoding-related indicator, wherein when the number of antenna ports indicated by the CRI is equal to or less than a prescribed value, the precoding-related indicator has a value of 0, and wherein the reporting the CSI comprises reporting the precoding-related indicator according to a CSI reporting type that is maintained when the number of antenna ports of the CSI-RS indicated by the CRI changes from a first value equal to or less than the prescribed value to a second value equal to or less than the prescribed value.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the CSI further comprises an RI (rank indicator) that is determined based on the determined CRI.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein when the number of antenna ports indicated by the CRI is 1, the RI has a value of 1 and the precoding-related indicator has a value of
 0. 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the precoding-related indicator comprises at least one of a PMI (precoding matrix index) or a PTI (precoding type indicator).
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving CSI-RSs, to which independent precoding is applied, via the plurality of the CSI-RS resources.
 6. The method of claim 2, wherein a reporting period of the CRI is a multiple of a reporting period of the RI.
 7. A method of receiving CSI (channel status information), which is received by a base station from a user equipment in a wireless access system, comprising the steps of: transmitting, to the user equipment, information on a CSI process configured by a plurality of CSI-RS (channel status information-reference signal) resources; and receiving the CSI from the user equipment according to a CSI reporting type, the CSI containing a CRI (CSI-RS resource indicator) and a precoding-related indicator based on the CRI, the CRI indicating: one of the plurality of the CSI-RS resources, and a number of antenna ports of the CSI-RS, wherein when the number of antenna ports indicated by the CRI is equal to or less than a prescribed value, the precoding-related indicator has a value of 0, and wherein UE reports the precoding-related indicator according to a CSI reporting type that is maintained when the number of antenna ports of the CSI-RS indicated by the CRI changes from a first value equal to or less than the prescribed value to a second value equal to or less than the prescribed value.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the CSI further comprises an RI (rank indicator) that is determined based on the determined CRI.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein when the number of antenna ports indicated by the CRI is 1, the RI has a value of 1 and the precoding-related indicator has a value of
 0. 10. The method of claim 7, wherein the precoding-related indicator comprises at least one of a PMI (precoding matrix index) or a PTI (precoding type indicator).
 11. The method of claim 7, further comprising: transmitting CSI-RSs, to which independent precoding is applied, via the plurality of the CSI-RS resources.
 12. The method of claim 8, wherein a reporting period of the CRI is a multiple of a reporting period of the RI. 